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The entire underquilt doesn't compress, just the one spot on the hip. Go setup your hammock with the underquilt with as much tension as possible. The spot under your hip will compress slightly, enough to make a cold spot.

Just go try it and see. Trying to explain it here won't do much good. It's like one of those weird things you used see on Mr. Wizard's World.

Okay then. Imagine you bought yourself an underquilt...ok? And so now you have to hang it under your hammock, right? So you hang it by the suspension line given to you by whatever company you bought it from.

But it's suspended too tightly, so when you lie down in your hammock, your underquilt's loft is compressed and you still feel cold... now, when you loosen the suspension a bit, it will force the underquilt to hang a little looser under your hammock and it isn't so compressed. Now when you lie down the underquilt is not AS compressed, but you still feel cold under your (just for instance, your LEFT) hip when you sleep on your side... so you then hang the underquilt even a bit LOOSER and now you are nice and toasty warm in your hammock and you have no pads in your hammock that keep sliding around during the night getting in your way, and you sleep for 8 hours straight and feel great the next day.

It helps to have someone OUTSIDE the hammock adjust the underquilt while you are inside, to get the best fit.

If the under quilt is hung to close to the hammock body when you lay in the hammock you will also compress the insulation just like a sleeping bag.

The optimal hang for and under quilt would be that once you are in the hammock the hammock body and the under quilt just touch, close enough to eliminate any air gaps that can cause cold spots but far enough away that the insulation is not compressed.

todd hiker,

Try to hang the under quilt a little lower. Pan showed me at Mt Rogers that you can move the suspension system in toward the center of the hammock a few inches or pull the the SS a little tighter so that you have more slack in the end with the biners. Make sense?

Wow ... you guys really do listen...

Todd,

Most of the responses have it about right...odds are that the SS is too tight making the UQ taut to the hammock bottom vs gentlty touching.... best is to check it with some one in the hammock...slide in a hand ,gently touching...test two ,place the other hand below the UQ...about the 2 inches for a Nest , stop it is right... less than 1.5 inches loosen it up by moving one end in towards the hammock by 1/2 inch... adjust one end at a time in 1/2 inch increments...

Enjoy !

Pan

Ounces to Grams.

www.jacksrbetter.com ... Largest supplier of camping quilts and under quilts...Home of the Original Nest Under Quilt, and Bear Mountain Bridge Hammock. 800 595 0413

why wouldn't you take the underquilt off to pack it up. Seems it would be quite large to pack away when left on the hammock. Do you use bungee cords to hold it in place.

Most people do detach the UQ when packing. I think headchange probably meant that the suspension stays adjusted for the most part; once you get the fit right you don't really have to adjust it.

I, on the other hand, have my "BB sack" which allows me to pack hammock, hammock sock, and UQ together in one nice, really quick bundle. The current size of the sack is about 11" diameter bottom by 16" long when packed. This isn't a tight pack - it's got enough room for Jeff's Potomac, or my Old Rag Mtn., or a Nest AND No Sniveler - with plenty to spare. This allows the quilt to loft as much as possible when you have room, or compress more when you don't.

"Physics is the only true science. All else is stamp collecting." - J. J. Thompson

why wouldn't you take the underquilt off to pack it up. Seems it would be quite large to pack away when left on the hammock. Do you use bungee cords to hold it in place.

Like BB said I do remove the under quilt when I break down camp but I leave the suspension system for the UQ on the hammock and it gets packed up with the hammock. I know you don't own an UQ so here's a pic of the JRB SS on a HH:

The pic shows the SS loosely hung on the hammock. Once you tighten it down it tends to stay in place. Getting an UQ hung correctly is a lot like getting a new pack: It takes a little while to get that everything adjusted for that perfect fit.

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." -Terry Pratchett